


Under the Stars

by scotchywrites



Series: A Hundred Red Roses [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Holding Hands, IT Chapter Two Spoilers, Late Night Conversations, Pining, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Soft Ben Hanscom, Stargazing, benverly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:40:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25151779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scotchywrites/pseuds/scotchywrites
Summary: "It's nice here," Beverly said. She kept two words for herself. Being alone outside had been good. Being outside with Ben, had been better. She was yet trying to come to terms with everything she's learned in the past forty-eight hours. She was still trying to place it all, and give it meaning. She tried so hard to listen to her heart, but her heart felt like it was broken nonetheless. She may not have loved Eddie like she thinks she loves Ben (or was it still Bill?), but she had still loved him dearly as her best friend. Her heart would need mending first.Ben pulled up his left leg and tucked one hand underneath his head. His other one remained resting on his stomach. She was right. It's nice out here, under the stars.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom & Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh
Series: A Hundred Red Roses [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822030
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Under the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have proofreaders, so beware, there might be some typos.

The quarry had been a place dear to their hearts. As children, the Losers had gathered there often times during summer to cool down and have their fair share of fun swimming or playing games together. The quarry was a core part of who they were as a group. It was their favourite place to be, other than the club house and the Barrens. When they stood on top of the tall, white cliff, they each felt like they were on top of the world. Nothing could stop them.

Ben still thought back, to how he had seen Richie sitting perched atop a boulder sticking out near the shore. The water level was rather low, due to a hot summer. But that didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore, or at least not according to Richie. The way he sat there, mourning the loss of their friend. It didn't require any spoken word. The Losers so easily had come to gather around their friend for his comfort. The view, it was etched onto Ben's mind like many other things he now recalls about Derry, no matter how old these memories have been. As more time passed by in Derry, more and more things seemed to return to not only Ben. He has so many great memories about the Barrens and the quarry. For Richie's loss to be their last memory of that place, was something which had unsettled every single one of them. Derry wouldn't be Derry, if it wouldn't spoil every good thing in the end.

Derry wouldn't be Derry, if it wouldn't spoil every good thing in the end...

Ben rose from his bed. After they had enough of the quarry and it's suffocating amount of emotions, they had all returned back to the Derry Inn to change clothes, get properly cleaned up, and prepare to leave (this time, preferably for good). Mike had returned to the library. Richie had hid away inside his room, as had Ben and Bill. Beverly had gone outside in the small backyard belonging to the inn. It offered seating space for about ten people, which was just about the amount of people this place could fit in its small accomodations. It was clear, that Derry has never been big on tourism during the past twenty-seven years. Ben remembers it differently. He recalls a great festival, or a carnival of sorts. It would attract many visitors and spectators. Maybe it had lost its charms through the years. It wouldn't be surprised.

Unaware of her whereabouts, Ben had crossed the hallway in search of Beverly. He had no eye for the old-fashioned interior of the building for once. Previously, he had found it quite charming (if not a little eerie once night would gather). This place, just like the rest of this town, lived up to it's idea of a perfect scenario to fit into a horror movie. Derry simply IS a horror movie.

"Bev?" Ben knocked on her door, but was left without an answer. He didn't have it in him to try and pull the knob to see if she'd locked it. If she wanted to see anyone at all, he figured she would open the door herself.

"Beverly? It's me, Ben." Deep within, he had grown a tad bit desperate. Derry spoils all good things. Ben Hanscom fears, Derry would spoil Beverly Marsh.

"Beverly?" Three more knocks on her door, but it was Bill opening the door to the room adjacent to Beverly's. He peeked his head outside to look out for what was going on outside the safety of his chamber. He saw Ben standing there, in the hallway, waiting at Beverly's door. A hint of sadness lingered in Bill's eyes, but when Ben looked at him he couldn't tell if it was because of what had happened to Eddie, or what had happened at the quarry between his two friends. "She's downstairs," Bill eventually said. His voice was quiet, in mourning. That, Ben addressed to the grief they all felt for Eddie. He only nodded in reply to Bill. Eddie so often was the life of the party, the talkative one. It almost felt as if he had taken all words with him...

Bill once more disappeared inside his room and closed the door behind him. Ben headed further into the hallway, towards the staircase where a few days prior, he and Beverly had found Eddie with a gaping knife wound pulling his face apart. One of the very few good things to come out of Derry nowadays, was Henry Bowers' death. Ben pushed the thought from his mind. Bowers makes him feel sick. Ben stepped down the stairs. They moaned gently under his feet, and it chimed into his ears. The sound of the old wood creaking was the only thing chasing complete, cold silence out of the old inn.

Beverly was downstairs according to Bill, but he had not been any more clear than that. Thus, Ben found himself wandering through the ground floor of the Derry Inn, almost like a ghost. Without doubt, this place was inhabited by ghosts. Every here and there, an old picture hung up on the walls, contrasting with the awful design of seventies wallpaper. The people in these pictures were of such ages, they likely passed away long ago. Ben had always assumed they were either previous owners of the inn, or significant visitors. The current owner of the inn, he's never seen. It was Mike, who had offered each of them a key to a room at this place. The longer Ben spent wandering around the place, finding no one but his own shadow, the more he felt like something really was up with this place after all. Maybe he was just leading himself on with these eerie thoughts. His heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly craved a fresh breath. Oh, when he leaves Derry, he will do so with the car windows wide open. 

For now, Ben headed to the back of the building and exited through an old and fickle, small door. He stepped out into a petite garden, decorated with some worn out chairs and two wooden tables which were in a state of nearly rotting. The garden itself displayed a case of terribly maintained grass. Scattered around the sides where mossy rocks, and (near) dead bushes. It was sad. Though, perhaps the saddest thing of all, was Beverly Marsh sitting in the middle of the garden, in the grass. She wore nothing but a pair of jeans and a tank top. Ben felt for her. It was that time of the year, when the sun sets, the sky turns cold.

He remained stood on the back porch for a few more moments, wondering what he should do next. Should he join her? Should he leave her be?

Derry wouldn't be Derry, if it wouldn't spoil every good thing in the end...

Ben stepped forward. He couldn't let Derry ruin this.

"Bev?" Ben asked cautiously. He remained stood a few feet behind her. He would wait for her now. She moved her head a little, to the side, as if to listen for who was calling out to her. "It's me," Ben said when he'd seen her move. "Ben." She turned her head back to its original position. She sat with her legs crossed on the grass, her back slightly hunched forward. Ben felt like she'd left him guessing again. He didn't like it much. Rather, it made him nervous. Derry may not ruin this moment, but he might.

"It's okay if I join you?" Ben tried next. "Won't be long." Beverly now tilted her head to the other side, though with slight reluctance. Ben thought of it as an invite and quietly moved closer to her. He came to stand next to her, and took a seat by her side on the grass. At first, he said nothing, nor did he look to the side to watch her. For now, it was just a moment of silence, a moment where they both could seek and find their comfort. Beverly was looking down at her hands. She was picking at some long green strands. Occasionally, she pulled one out, but mostly she traced her fingers through them. It was a tender feeling, almost the same as running her fingers through someone's hair.

Ben had his hands resting in his lap for now. He'd copied her, and sat with his legs crossed. A few more seconds passed by, before he inhaled a sharp breath. "You want my coat?" he asked her. Ben was wearing a dark grey jacket, much rather than a proper coat, but it was the gesture that counts, rather than the correctness behind it. Beverly didn't respond. Ben assumed she wanted more time for herself, and he would gladly give it to her. He would wait for her, even if it would take him the rest of his life. Now, more than ever before, he was keen on not giving up on Beverly.

As minutes slowly added up, they reached about half an hour in complete silence when Beverly spoke up. "I'm cold." Moments later, she was allowed to wrap herself in the warmth of Ben's dark grey jacket. She was happy again. Ben wondered if she would go quiet again, like before. "Thank you, Ben," she managed to say as soon as she was comfortable again. Ben smiled softly, but she might not have seen it. Her eyes were scanning the scene in front of her. It wasn't the most fascinating sight, Ben would agree with her if she were to bring it up. 

Maybe Ben could bring it up. "You want to lie down?" he asked. It sounded a lot better in his mind. It sounded more romantic, thinking about it. He cast his gaze down, and away from her. Ben swore, he could feel a pink blush creep onto his cheeks. He hoped it would go unseen in the darkness of the evening. The garden and its little terrace no longer had working lights. There was only the white light of the moon high above their heads to light up their surroundings.

"Why?" Beverly asked.

"Because the stars are beautiful tonight," Ben managed to say in response. Now, he was a little surprised with himself. At first, it genuinely felt to him as if he were to completely ruin this tender moment between them. Now, he felt like he may just have saved it, if just a little. As Ben's blush had gone unnoticed to Beverly, her little smile might have gone lost to Ben. He would've loved it, if he'd seen it.

Beverly shifted next to him and slowly moved to lie down on her back, on a carpet of long, soft grass. It felt cold, but she didn't care. Ben was right. The stars looked very nice and only now, she had noticed that there were no clouds blocking the view. How had she not looked up earlier? She rested her hands on her stomach and exhaled a deep breath. From the corner of her eye, she saw Ben turn to look at her. They smiled softly at each other. Ben joined her, and laid down by her side. They looked up at the stars together, and Ben wondered... Did they ever look at the moon at the same time before, without knowing it?

"You want to know a secret?" Ben asked after a minute. They allowed each other these silences so comfortably. Beverly hummed in response. "Back home, before all this, when I couldn't sleep... I would look outside my window. I would look at the moon, and I would wonder, if Beverly from my yearbook page is doing the same thing." Ben had to swallow his little chuckle by the time he had reached the end of his sentence. He's never realized how cheesy that must sound with Beverly right by his side now. She smiled, and allowed another moment of silence between them. "I used to look up at the stars, too. When I couldn't sleep," she eventually said. Now, they both smiled. Ben felt his heart grow a size bigger.

"You know where you're going? After all this?" he asked. As had become their habit by now, it only followed once they had allowed another breath of silence between them. This moment, it was so tranquil, like the ripple in a pond's surface. Beverly closed her eyes and thought about it. Would she have to go back home? To Tom? She hopes not, but she felt like she would need to. After that? She doesn't know. She is afraid all of a sudden. Her husband hadn't been on her mind ever since she'd left him behind to rot inside their stupid, big house. All that time, it had been Pennywise occupying her mind. But IT was gone, now. What else had been on her mind ever since the old house on Neibolt Street collapsed? She thought about Eddie, and Richie. She thought about Bill, and about Ben. And now she thought about Tom Rogan. "I'm sorry," Ben uttered next. Her silence had been longer than before. 

"I don't know," Beverly confessed at last. "I think I have to go back." Ben's heart sunk an inch deeper inside his chest. Of course she would need to go back. He just hopes she wouldn't stay.

"I don't want to stay," Beverly mused. "But if I want to go away, I first need to go back." Just like with Derry, they both thought at the same time. They didn't know, they thought the same thing. "After that, I don't know."

"What about you?" Beverly asked next. It didn't seem like Ben would say something in return. "Where are you going, Ben?"

"I don't know," Ben confessed after he thought about it for about a minute. He had been thinking about it before, but never before had he come to the conclusion that in the end, he really doesn't know where he would take his life now. Back to the office? Back to his lonely house in Nebraska? Back to how it was, like nothing happened at all? Like no one had died and like he never remembered... Ben scrunched his nose. "Maybe none of us do," he dared to say next. Richie surely doesn't, so much was certain. Maybe the only one who knows where he's headed next is Mike Hanlon. He, Ben sees driving away as far away from Derry as possible. And he would never look back. Maybe Ben should do that, too. Maybe he should ask Beverly to join him. Oh, how often has he dreamed about showing her the world?

They looked up at the stars again. A satellite flickered past. Ben wondered if Beverly had seen it, and Beverly wondered if Ben has noticed it too. Neither of them knew that two stories above their heads, Richie Tozier sat looking outside his window, to see the same satellite pass by. Only, he was alone and as soon as the flickering star was gone, he tucked himself into bed. He's never seen his friends in the grass.

Ben tried to draw shapes and figures between the stars, almost like a game of connecting dots. Beverly was trying to count them all as a cold breeze ran over her body once again. "It's getting cold," she mused to herself. Ben had heard it, if only faintly. "You want to go inside?" he asked her. "Not yet."

"It's nice here," Beverly said. She kept two words for herself. Being alone outside had been good. Being outside with Ben, had been better. She was yet trying to come to terms with everything she's learned in the past forty-eight hours. She was still trying to place it all, and give it meaning. She tried so hard to listen to her heart, but her heart felt like it was broken nonetheless. She may not have loved Eddie like she thinks she loves Ben (or was it still Bill?), but she had still loved him dearly as her best friend. Her heart would need mending first.

Ben pulled up his left leg and tucked one hand underneath his head. His other one remained resting on his stomach. She was right. It's nice out here, under the stars.

"You think," Ben thought out loud. Nearly two minutes had passed in complete silence. "we should apologize, to Richie?"

Beverly frowned. Ben hadn't seen it. They both were still gazing up at the stars. "What for?" Beverly questioned.

"You know," Ben slowly said. "for what happened at the quarry."

"Does he know?" Beverly asked quietly. She knows Richie is nearby. He wasn't listening, though. Their voices didn't reach up that high. "Bill knows," Ben replied. "He saw us."

A breath of silence brushed over them. "Are you ashamed?" Beverly asked next. She slowly began having her doubts now. It had been her call, to kiss Ben at the quarry. Deep inside the tightest core of her heart, it felt exactly like what she needed and wanted. There had been that little voice inside her head, which told Beverly that she can impossibly leave Derry without kissing Ben. And why? She couldn't even say it. Was it love? Was it an attempt to make her forget about how much she was hurting elsewhere? Was it the desire to feel the kiss of another man before she would need to go back to Tom's violence? She couldn't tell then, and she still can't tell now.

"No." God, no. Ben felt the words fill his throat, yet none of them seemed to make it past his lips for now. It was a frustrating feeling. He swallowed thickly. Right next to him, Beverly didn't feel so sure about his answer. Ben would need to say something, quickly. Or so he felt. The eggs under his feet were beginning to break...

"It felt good," he confessed after a while. Once more, he felt a blush paint itself across his cheeks. "I just worried," Ben continued to speak. The words were slowly beginning to flow again. "If what we did, wasn't...harmful, to Richie."

Beverly watched the stars, still. "In what way?"

"We lost Eddie." Ben didn't make it sound like a reminder, because it really wasn't. Everyone would know for a long while onward. This grief and this loss would not be mended within the blink of an eye.

"We did," Beverly confirmed. "I miss him, Ben."

"I do, too."

They fell silent, thinking and looking up at the stars. Beverly had lost her count long ago, and began counting again. Ben tried to draw new, imaginary lines to create figures and shapes. He almost caught his eyes trying to write Beverly's name in the stars just now, and the chuckle he felt bubbling up in the back of his throat was quickly reduced to a little hum. Beverly smiled to herself when she heard the little sound. This moment, just like this, she found it to be just right. It was perfect. Right next to her, Ben Hanscom thought the same. It was like living one of those many, vague dreams he's had through the years, where he would be courting a faceless woman with hair, red like flames...

Ben's hand slipped from his stomach, onto the grass in the middle between himself, and Beverly. Just like there had been a part of Beverly telling her to kiss Ben at the quarry, Ben now had a little voice telling him to reach out for her, to hold her now that he still can...to not let her go, ever again. His fingers traced through the cold grass.

In her turn, Beverly felt drawn towards Ben. She assumed it was the will of the moment. She thought it was just the tranquility of this happening, the gentleness and the serenity of it all. They had shaped something together. They had set a certain kind of mood, thought she couldn't quite put a word or a name on it. She only knows that it feels good, and right. And she knows, that she is meant to reach out for him. She is meant to do so, for reasons unclear, for reasons that feel right.

Her fingertips brush against Ben's hand. Ben caught a spark of warmth racing through his every vein. It felt as if all of a sudden, the flame in her hair now burned inside his chest. It was a strong spark, yet nowhere nearly as strong as the burst of lightning she'd sent coursing through every inch of Ben's skin when she had kissed him. Ben's fingers twitched, in search of hers. Eventually, they hooked two of their digits together, and held onto each other. Ben hungered for another spark. He yearned for her touch, her proximity, no matter how small and how innocent. Having Beverly with him, was all Ben could think of in this very moment. High above him, the moon was shining bright, but right next to Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom's heart was shining even brighter.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Twitter: [@bnvrly](https://twitter.com/bnvrly) !


End file.
